The great socialist people's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is a part of the gigantic continent of Africa . It is also a natural extension of the Arab world. It is a revolutionary active center for the unity of Arabs. Jamahiriya is an old country , it's as old as the history of mankinf itself, the land of ancient cilizations that extended for centuries in the past . There are no permanent rivers in Libya, only Wadis (watercourses) which hold the infrequent excess from the rainfall. in the Fezzan area. Years may go by without rain and agriculture is sustained thanks to subsurface aqueducts. The existence of vast fossil aqueducts in the South and in the Southeast has prompted the building of huge pipelines to bring water to the coastal areas for agricultural and industrial use. This latter project is known as the great man made river project being the largest engineering scheme currently carried out and most expensive in the world.

Libya has large high quality oil reserves most of which are in the desert areas South of the gulf of Sirt. The gulf area is dotted with oil terminals, mostly around Ras Lanuf and Brega contributing immensely to the nation's economy.

Location

Jamahiriya lies in the Northern part of Africa , it is surrounded by six African countries : Egypt and Sudan from the East, Tunisia and Algeria from the West and Chad and Niger from south , while in the North lies the Mediterranean sea with a coast extending for 2000 kilometers.

The area

The total area of Jamahiriya is nearly two millions square kilometers , it is the fourth African country.

Physical features

The land consists of agricultural plains, some hills and vast extended Sahara. Some of the hills are covered by green groves like the green hills in the East . Others are covered by solid rocks: The rest of the country is covered by the great Sahara in which we find some oasis covered by palm trees just like island in an ocean of sands. Seasonal rainfalls happen in winter, autumn and spring with an average of 400 ml. Agriculture on the other hand depends mainly on ground water from ordinary wells.

Climate

Due to the lack of natural barriers, the Sahara desert on the south and the Mediterranean on the north, have a great effect on Libya's climate. The summer season is generally very hot with temperatures in the coast area around 30 degrees C (86 F) often accompanied by high humidity. In the south region temperatures may reach 50 degrees C (122 F).

The winter may be cool and rainy on the coast with snow occasionally in the jebels and temperatures dropping below the 00c at night.
Periodically during the spring one may encounter the Gebli, a hot, dry, sand laden wind which can raise temperatures in a matter of hours to between 40c and 50c and which can last or a few hours or even days.

Money and Currency

The unit currency is the Libyan Dinar (lyd), which equals 1000 dirhams. Dinars are issued in 20, 10, 5, 1, 0.5, 0.25 notes. Coins are rarely used are available nowadays in 250, 100, 10, 5, dirhams.

Business Hours

Libya operates an Islamic working week, with Friday as the day off, government offices work from 8 am to 2 pm.